Tag Archives: General news

A Michigan man is the first person to face charges under the state’s new law requiring gun owners to keep weapons in locked storage containers around minors. The case is bringing attention to similar state laws across the U.S. and prosecutors’ determination of when to bring criminal charges using them. The debate is particularly sharp in Michigan, where prosecutors in …

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Democratic-controlled Virginia Senate and House of Delegates on Thursday each passed their own proposed version of the next two-year state budget, documents lawmakers will start to work from to fashion a compromise spending plan to send to Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin. Both chambers signed off on amendments to the 2024-2026 budget Youngkin first proposed in …

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Lithuania decided Wednesday to seal off another two of its six checkpoints with Belarus as of next month, amid growing tensions with its eastern neighbor, an ally of Russia. This brings the total of closed border crossings into the Baltic country to four. The Lavoriskes and Raigardas checkpoints will stop functioning on March 1, as all …

The financially struggling Metropolitan Opera will present 18 productions in 2024-25, matching the current season and pandemic-curtailed 2019-20 for the fewest since 14 in strike-shortened 1980-81. Met general manager Peter Gelb kept up his pivot to contemporary works, starting the season with Jeanine Tesori’s “Grounded” on Sept. 23, then presenting Osvaldo Golijov’s “Ainadamar” opening Oct. 15 and John Adams’ “Antony …

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The New Orleans Police Department’s progress in complying with an 11-year-old reform agreement has “accelerated dramatically,” a federal judge said Wednesday, but she gave no indication when she would feel comfortable relaxing court oversight of the department. Judge Susie Morgan’s comments in an afternoon hearing appeared to mark a softening of tensions between the court and …

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Gay rights advocates pushed back Wednesday against a Republican-sponsored measure to broaden Kentucky’s religious freedom law, claiming it threatens to undermine community-level “fairness ordinances” meant to protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination. The measure, House Bill 47, won approval from the House Judiciary Committee, but some supporters signaled a willingness to make revisions to the bill as …

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Somalia announced on Wednesday a defense deal with Turkey that includes support for the Horn of Africa nation’s sea assets and appears aimed at deterring Ethiopia’s efforts to secure access to the sea by way of the breakaway region of Somaliland. Ethiopia signed a memorandum of understanding with Somaliland on Jan. 1. The document has rattled …

TOKIO (AP) — El jefe de una empresa de energía renovable en Japón fue despedido por acoso sexual, informaron ambas compañías el miércoles, mientras el movimiento #MeToo crece en el país. Japan Renewable Energy Corp., subsidiaria de Eneos Holdings, la principal refinadora del país, indicó en un comunicado que despidió al presidente Shigeru Yasu después de que una investigación interna …

MEREDITH, N.H. (AP) — As temperatures plunged on Mount Washington and ferocious winds made it near impossible to see, hiker Cole Matthes began to drift away from the trail. Then he hit a patch of snow-covered ice and slid hundreds of feet down a ravine. His fall Saturday sparked a rescue mission that would last 11 hours, utilize the mountain’s …

DENVER (AP) — An American founder of a Haitian orphanage who is accused of sexually abusing four boys there more than a decade ago has been ordered to be sent from Colorado to Florida to face prosecution. Michael Geilenfeld, 71, was arrested in Colorado on Jan. 20 after being indicted in Florida, accused of traveling from Miami to Haiti between …